The present invention relates to a hinge structure for rotatably support a body to be supported, a foldable support structure for supporting the body to be supported and an electric apparatus having the foldable support structure.
In general, a digital camera is provided with a display device, such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2003-301654A (hereafter, referred to as patent document 1) describes a digital camera of this type in which a display device is attached to a camera body via a hinge structure having a frictional braking function so that the angle of the display device with respect to the camera body can be adjusted. Such a configuration allows a photographer to capture an image at various angles while checking the image displayed on the display device.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 8-23465A (hereafter, referred to as patent document 2) describes a digital camera in which a display device is attached to a camera body via a support stricture constituting a link mechanism so that the display device can be tilted both in the up and down direction and in the left and right direction. The support structure uses a frictional hinge structure configured such that, by applying frictional resistance to rotations of movable units, the movable units do not rotate unless torque of a predetermined strength or more is applied to the movable units. With this configuration, the display device can be held in a stationary state at an arbitrary position and posture within a movable range.